Geneseo Promotes Liberal Arts Mission Across Higher Ed

GENESEO, N.Y. - As a public liberal arts college, Geneseo
is making strides toward increasing liberal arts education’s profile in
the local, statewide, national and international higher education
landscapes.

In the local arena, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Long said Geneseo
is pushing ahead with community engagement through work with county and
community agencies to help improve the quality of life. Citing alumnus
Greg O’Connell’s ‘64 revitalization efforts in Mount Morris, Long said
the college is playing a significant role in helping to improve the
surrounding areas.

According to Long, Geneseo has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll since its inception.

Statewide, Geneseo
is working with the State University of New York as well as other New
York institutions of higher education to focus on using technology to
foster more collaborative education.

“NITLE
really tries to bring the benefits of that digital technology to
smaller campuses and to keep smaller campuses abreast of innovations,”
she said, adding that members of the organization “have the notion that,
particularly smaller institutions, need to collaborate more effectively
than we have in the past … we need to share ideas and resources.”

Long cited the SUNY Language PACT
(Pipeline-Access-Culture-Technology) initiative, which she said seeks to
foster collaboration between SUNY campuses to make language studies
more available. She said initiatives like this one would likely involve
courses with both online and offline components.

On a national scale, Long said that Geneseo has worked to increase the role of liberal arts in higher education. Long said public liberal arts colleges have a “prominent role to play” with a “terrific price point in the market.” Geneseo, she said, offers “an education that isn’t hideously costly, and yet is really high quality.”

On an international level, Geneseo is working to increase global education in its students’ lives. According to Long, starting in fall 2013, Geneseo
will serve as a part of the American Council on Education
Internationalization Laboratory, an 18-month program featuring 10 to 12
schools that helps support self-studies of international programs. ACE
will send representatives to Geneseo
to help form a team meant to review all international curriculum
programs and to raise the level of engagement with other institutions in
the program.

Long said Geneseo
also has multiple connections to campuses worldwide through both SUNY
and its own international efforts. Through SUNY, the campus offers dual
degree programs with universities in Turkey, Mexico and Russia. Long
added that Geneseo
is also working with Bath Spa University in England to formulate a
consortium of 10 to 12 institutions to look at liberal arts education
internationally.